Ugandans
There have been several threads in this forum that have pushed me to put
this piece together this Toronto morning. And since they have been written
by different people I need to raise the names of Dan Bwanika and the thread
going on right now between Ssalongo Ssenoga Ocen Nekyon and Bobby Musoke
under a thread Don't evict tenants from land, government tells Buganda -
National - monitor.co.ug When one reads these exchanges one reaches a
point we have raised over and over that Uganda has a culture that is
important to it, but we need to stop and look at ourselves if it is turning
us to a stalled society or a developing society. When you read Bwanika s
plans of development you start to wonder how they can ever be implemented
into Uganda, when the entire land is owned by some unknown land owners with
land titles. You start to wonder how you will implement them when the
ownership of land in Uganda is never based on value but on cultural
importance. But you wonder how such plans will ever be implemented when
individuals in our country refuse to sell a land for that is our land from
grandparents and it still owns the bones of our grand grandfather Musoke
Kiyingi. Such a land I am submitting to you that it will never be sold let
alone developed for there is simply no statute of limitation on how long the
crap will lay under the ground.
Many years ago we went to Uganda and we were interested into buying a land
in Kampala just after the little corner on Bombo road as you turn to drive
towards the old taxi park. As you are turning there were some two or three
small buildings on the west side that were right in front of the hotel. We
wanted to buy that property to develop it in a spectacular way for we were
many and had the ability to make something that would revolutionaries the
city in that section. For a full month we remained in Kampala we failed to
get an agreement from the owners of that property because it belonged to
certain Doctor either Kaggwa or some name I forget, he was dead and he had
left the buildings to his kids that were in UK and they were simply not
selling for this was their fathers dream and investment. I have taken long
without passing that Ghetto but I can bet that those three stooges are still
standing in that sector of Kampala. A Uganda culture does not allow anyone
to sell for now you are a bad person, we do not sell dead people but we
spread corpses as if there is no tomorrow. In our culture an individual has
a right to state under which tree in his land he wants buried, and God you
never pluck him out for Jjajja waffe yagamba ayagala kuganzibwa awo munange
tunamujawo tutya?
Ugandans do not move for greener pastures, we grew up in our grandfathers
house and we die in the same house for we protect his ancestry. Such
stupidity is good but we need to reach a point of realizing that it has no
monetary value. How many Ugandans have you actually seen moving to different
districts because they will get a better income? They rather create convoys
to that location and back every night but never to move. If you hand me a
job in Montreal today that pays more than I make here with better benefits,
I am out and gone in a day. Who do you know that has actually moved from
Wobulenzi to Nakasongola for he has a better way to make more money? And
all am stating here is that our movements and locating is based solely on
cultural crap than monetary value. That is why Bobby Musoke builds an
argument about development based on how many Ugandans are Baganda, for to
him those Baganda are stuck into Buganda and will never move out and you
need not move in. It is such a paralysis reasoning holding our country.
Let us leave Kampala for a second and look at a municipality like Toronto.
This city has changed about 5 times since I came into it, and do you know
why we can do it? There is a price for every plot. I will go to a the city
and propose to them what I need to build in the city, I do not have to give
them the plot but area, in which to build for I will get it sure deal. If
that plan gets approved I start to look at the addresses I need to invade, I
go to the city and ask the value on several addresses, I jump it up and make
an offer. If your premise has a value of 5million dollars I throw 7 million
dollars to you and you are out, yes you can refuse to sell at that price I
will raise it up and up and up till when I buy it off you and you move out.
Tractors show up and the premise is demolished and we are building. A price
will be put on my new premise and couple of years someone will buy it off
me. We move like no yesterday for we are more interested into monetary value
than where Mugobansonga was actually buried. If we raise the amount more and
more and more and you still refuse to sell, be very careful I can go for
that property politically and it will be expropriated and I will still get
it so you balloon it only so much.
To those that know Toronto well, we had a GM dealership on Bay and Grosvenor
Streets, west side selling new cars and East side selling used cars. Do you
know why it is no longer there? A buyer showed up and the piece had a value
of about 50 million dollars, he threw him 65 million dollars and he refused.
On and on they went till the buyer offered 84 million dollars, the owner of
the dealership gave intention to all his employees to close. Two months they
were gone and he is in Florida enjoying retirement, the dealership was
replaced by three condo building with about 60 floors a piece. If you know
yonge street at the bottom, Toronto Star built that building and every one
was asking why on the water? It was one building at the bottom of the city,
well guess what? Today it has been swallowed up that the only piece you can
build at is the parking lot of Toronto star behind it. Be informed that I
have seen a report that the parking lot is going as well because they have a
buyer going to put 3 condos of 70 floors a God damn piece. There is a price
to everyone in Toronto. There is a library where there was a swimming pool
and vice versa and the building continues. Down town Toronto no longer has
car dealerships for they were all bought out and all are gone, next in line
to target is church mausoleums just watch they are going as well and very
soon.
What is the price of your property in Kampala? What is the price of your
property in Mbale Jinja Gulu? We dont have those values because we dont
even pay property taxes on them any ways, so you will stand with an old lady
who owns the kyapa kyettaka and she has no incentive to sell for now I have
to keep this land for my grandchildren. And we as society agree to entitle
her to that right of keeping a land that is not developed and she has no
guarantee that the kids will develop it either. Ssalongo Ssenoga has spent
five years pleading how Buganda land is important and no one can touch it,
but he falls short of telling us how he will develop it, how will Buganda
develop it and how does Uganda at large develop it? He does not even pay
taxes on it, but that land was defended by his father who is clearly dead
today and he never paid taxes on it either, and he never developed it
either, the cycle is not going to end. And that is the point culture has
started to become a bullndago in our development because yes it is Buganda
yes it is Gulu yes it is Mbale but in those areas are people of all tribes
living in them and they all need development. You do not develop any country
when you base that development on region or on culture or on language you
develop it for all people living in that region. There are more non Baganda
in Buganda today, they have a firkin right to decide how to develop where
they live and how they develop it as long as they pay for it and they build
buildings based on city standards.
If we start to charge an annual property tax on all land owners in Uganda we
will cut this stupidity into firkin half. And I am done !!!!!!
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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